Aged residential care occupancy for 31 December 2017 quarter

The national occupancy figure at 31 December 2017 is 86.9% (Figure 1, red line). This is unchanged from 30 September[1] and is very similar to the 87.0% occupancy recorded in June. Underlying the static occupancy rate is a small fall in the bed supply (down 262 to 38,469 in December), balanced by a similar small decline in the number of residents (down 196 to 33,444).

The number of distinct care facilities recorded in the 31 December 2017 quarter was, at 665, 3 down from the 668 in the 30 September 2017 quarter.

Figure 1 also shows the occupancy rate with ORA ARRC-certified beds and residents excluded (green line). This stands at 88.5% in December 2017, the same as in September.

The average occupancy rate for NZACA members in December is 87.3% (down slightly from 87.7% in September), compared to non-members occupancy of 82.1%. While there has been an increase in non-member occupancy (from 77.1% in September) this was driven by a 7.2% fall in bed supply rather than any increase in residents.

The DHB with the highest occupancy in the December 2017 quarter was again South Canterbury, at 92.6%, unchanged from September (Table 1 and Figure 2). Northland DHB had the second highest occupancy in December at 92.2%.

Figure 2 ranks the DHBs in descending order of their shift in occupancy between September and December 2017. The largest jump in occupancy occurred in Auckland (up 6.1% to 91.2%). This is followed by a 1.6% increase (to 92.2%) in Northland and a 1.2% increase (to 92.1%) in the Hutt Valley.

Table 2 shows the national occupancy difference by (non-ORA) bed type in September 2017 and December 2017. Occupancy of dedicated rest home beds has slid by 0.5% to 89.0%. Occupancy of dedicated hospital beds is unchanged at 89.4%, and occupancy of dual service beds slid very marginally by 0.1% to 88.2%.

Table 3 shows occupancy across all DHB regions by (non-ORA) bed-service type at 31 December 2017.

[1] These figures are rounded to one decimal place. When two decimal places are given, the figures are 86.86% for September 2017 and 86.94% for 31 December 2017.